Spotlight Shines On Florida

Delegates Get The Royal Treatment In Bid To Sway State's Key Votes.

Boston — Four years ago at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, the big question for Florida's political leaders was whether Al Gore would even put up a fight for the state.

This year in Boston there is no doubt John Kerry will compete in Florida, as evidenced by the attention lavished on the state and its delegates. From front-and-center seating in the convention hall for the state's delegation to a procession of actors and political stars speaking to those same Floridians every morning, at this convention it's clearly good to be a Sunshine Stater.

In yet another signal that Florida is hot, the Kerry campaign is planning a Monday visit to Hialeah by Sen. John Edwards, the soon-to-be vice presidential nominee, where he is expected to announce a major push for Cuban-American voters. Cuban-Americans voted overwhelmingly for Bush in 2000, but some are angry about recent restrictions on travel to Cuba, giving Democrats a potential opening.

"We plan on going after that vote aggressively," said Tom Shea, the director of Kerry's campaign in the state.

Tuesday, when some of the Kerry campaign's pollsters and state leaders held a political briefing focusing on Southern states, Florida was left to the end so that more time could be spent talking about the special state.

"The key difference in this race is that George W. Bush has had four years to give the people of Florida a reason to elect him by more than 537 votes and he hasn't done it," said Shea, who argues that his candidate is showing unprecedented strength by being tied in most polls with an incumbent this early in the race.

To win Florida, Shea said the campaign has to attract more swing votes, more votes in North Florida where Gore lost big and more Cuban-Americans.

Besides getting new voters, Shea acknowledged the party has to turn out its base in Florida.

"We clearly have to have a level of turnout that is like 2000, or better," he said.

But Reed Dickens, a Bush campaign spokesman, said the president has a good case to make in Florida because the state has been gaining jobs and will look favorably upon the administration's tax cuts. And, Dickens said, the fact that Florida is close in the polls means nothing because the country is evenly divided.

Dickens does agree with the Kerry campaign on one thing, though.

"Florida is a crucial battleground for the election, and I think both campaigns know that," he said.

Florida is on everyone's lips, signs and T-shirts in Boston. It seems not a speaker goes by at the convention podium or any other gathering without making a reference to Florida's 2000 election and the 37-day recount that followed.

"I feel great. I feel like a movie star," said Diane Glasser, the vice chairwoman of the state party and a Tamarac resident. Glasser said this is her sixth convention and none has been this good for the Florida delegation.

"Everybody is looking to Florida," she said.

Four years ago in Los Angeles, the Florida delegation had to sit to the side of the speakers on the podium.

Not this year. The Florida delegation is right on the floor and right in the middle, behind only the delegations of the home state, Massachusetts, and its neighbor, New Hampshire.

The Florida delegation also got a prime hotel in the heart of Boston's historic Back Bay.

And show up to the delegation's morning breakfasts at the hotel and you'll find a star-studded affair of Hollywood actors and bright political lights.

In the first two days of the convention, the delegation has been treated to speeches by actors Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin and Richard Dreyfuss. Democratic star Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden and former Attorney General Janet Reno also have spoken.

"We won in 2000. We will win in 2004," Jackson said Tuesday morning, getting the delegation to chant along with him. Jackson said he plans an August visit to Florida and a later bus tour of the state to register voters.

Dreyfuss gave a long speech to the delegation Tuesday where he accused Bush of imperiling civil liberties and endangering the lives of young Americans in Iraq. He tried to contradict the Bush campaign's accusations of Kerry as a flip-flopper by saying the Massachusetts senator changed his mind on Iraq because he learned more. Kerry voted for the resolution authorizing force but later voted against providing more money for the war.

"He changed his mind," Dreyfuss said. "This is what thoughtful people do. This is what we teach our children ... to George Bush, thinking things through is for sissies."

Still to come at the morning breakfasts today and Thursday are Kerry's wife and daughter, Teresa Heinz Kerry and Vanessa Kerry, as well as retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Rafael Lorente can be reached at rlorente@sun-sentinel.com or 202-824-8225 in Washington.